Many clients (to say nothing of nearly all of them) arrive for Consultations during “difficult planetary transits”…
Often, this involves a tangle of different transits (slow-moving planets combined with activations of faster planets) that bring several Birth Chart patterns into focus.
Faced with such complexity, I obviously cannot offer a single answer that applies to everyone.
Nevertheless, there are a few guiding principles for navigating these challenging transits more effectively, whatever they may be !
- Avoid anticipating transits prematurely
- Know yourself well
- Maintain an objective perspective and step back
- Experience transits in the present moment
- Cultivate optimism and take action
1 – Do not anticipate a transit prematurely
Often, the client who has some basic knowledge of astrology worries themselves the most, losing sleep over a future transit: “I’ve got a Saturn square coming up in a year”, “Uranus is approaching my natal Black moon soon”, and so on…
This is perhaps the most counterproductive approach of all, because not only do we completely miss the present moment (see Karma in Astrology regarding the importance of fully living the present), but we also anxiety ourselves over events that haven’t even occurred yet, whose exact nature we cannot possibly know.
Worrying in advance serves no purpose, even in the case of a so-called “difficult” transit, these are evolutionary life cycles… The goal isn’t to minimize them, but to understand them, to recognize the profound significance they represent.
Moreover, if you don’t have a solid grasp of astrology, you may overlook countless factors that nuance or even contradict your predictions about a “bad transit”…
You might fixate on that Saturn square while forgetting, for example, that your chart ruler is receiving a shower of Trines ! 😉
2 – “Know thyself”
Learn to know yourself well, that is, to truly understand your Birth Chart.
It is genuinely a duty to become fully aware of your “reality of being” before passing any judgment whatsoever.
Strive to understand yourself deeply, to identify the fundamental reasons behind your actions, to discern the meaning underlying events.
Empirically speaking, analyze your astrological configurations: your Planets, your Aspects, your Houses, your Signs. Try to pinpoint as precisely as possible which astrological dominants are animating you. Visualization Techniques can support you in this work of refinement, and, above all, of understanding.
Here too, I far too often see clients who believe they know themselves and their chart, yet they don’t truly perceive the precise significance of their configuration; they don’t grasp the implications and interconnections of the various elements in all their complexity.
Before determining the actual nature of a transit, you must first determine the actual nature of the birth chart.
The better you know yourself, the better equipped you are to determine what kinds of adaptations certain transits will require.
3 – Place all transits within a broader, long-term perspective
We tend to hyper-focus on a short- or medium-term transit without ever situating it within a long-term perspective.
Yet every transit belongs within the framework of its generic Cycles.
Keep in mind that every transit invariably has a beginning and an end. Don’t simply scrutinize a short-/medium-term transit under a magnifying glass without taking the time to situate it within the totality of the larger cycles to which it belongs, or alongside other cycles unfolding in parallel.
You need to objectively consider the full picture of all transits and avoid isolating and interpreting just one fragment of the overall astrological configuration.
Placing a transit’s meaning within a deeper analytical framework helps put things in perspective.
What is the true significance of a transit lasting one year when viewed against the backdrop of an entire lifetime ?
A transit that proves difficult in the short or medium term can be extremely productive, “formative”, and evolutionary in the individual’s development.
See my article on how to experience the transits of the slow-moving planets to better understand this notion of working with time.
4 – Fully experience every transit
It’s tempting to try to “opt out” of difficult transits, to attempt to “ignore them”, either by retreating into the past and refusing everything, or by perpetually fleeing forward into the future, believing that “elsewhere, later”, the grass will be greener. But this is entirely counterproductive and futile…
A transit indicates that something must be experienced in the present; the sooner you grasp this and integrate the transit’s deeper meaning, the less hold suffering will have, both on your present and your future.
Use your solid knowledge of your Birth Chart to identify what you can firmly rely on to get through the period.
Do you have a strong Saturn ? Is your Mercury being activated ? Is a natal Sextile resonating ? Are Secondary Progressions lighting up ? Lean into all the strong elements that emerge !
Learning to understand and utilize your Projections is also an important mechanism in integrating difficult transits.
Initially, “in the heat of the moment”, avoid judging what you think or feel about a transit; the mechanism of judgment is contrary to experiencing the present.
Once you have sufficient distance and attempt to analyze your experience of the transit, strive to analyze it as objectively as possible, with minimal bias from your former values, in order to truly perceive the essence of the new values it may convey.
Indeed, a present transit always brings “new values”, and you cannot objectively assess these values solely through the lens of your old psychological patterns.
You must allow time to do its work to arrive at a pertinent analysis…
5 – Stay positive and take action
Whatever challenge a transit brings, optimism and activity are far more useful than pessimism and passivity.
There is always something meaningful to be gleaned from an experience or a feeling. Every aspect, every astrological configuration has an evolutionary purpose, a positive dimension to find and to develop.
This is the essence of various philosophical teachings, from Nietzsche’s expression “What does not kill me makes me stronger”, to Buddhist philosophies on the impermanence of things, renunciation, and emptiness…
The best defense is a good offense ! A difficult transit points directly to something that requires inner work; it is this necessity of integration that generates suffering and challenges.
It is useful to trace the root of this suffering, sometimes by looking back in time, and then to initiate the necessary transformations to address it.
Suppose a growing square from Saturn creates difficulties and suffering to integrate; it may be helpful to trace back to the root Conjunction (the previous Saturn return, for example) to try to understand the profound meaning of the complete cycle.
In my view, action is more productive than passivity for overcoming any difficulty: fight against others if necessary, and above all, fight against yourself !
The thought that underlies any action is salutary in any evolutionary process.